Electronic mail programs have become a popular application among computer users. Especially with the advent of the Internet, exchanging email has almost become a reason why people purchase computers for personal reasons, and within many corporate environments, email has become the standard manner by which coworkers exchange information. However, with the increasing popularity of email, shortcomings have become apparent.
Chief among these shortcomings is that many users now face a deluge of email every day, such that the capability of being able to send and receive email has almost become a hindrance to their day-to-day ability to get their job done, as opposed to being an asset. Some users report receiving over 100 email messages a day. With such large numbers of email, it is difficult to manage the email, such that the users read the most important messages first.
Limited solutions to this problem have been attempted in the prior art. Prior art exists for attempting to curtail the amount of junk email—e.g., unsolicited email, typically regarding a service or product for sale—that users receive. Moreover, some electronic mail programs allow for the generation of rules that govern how an email is managed within the program—for example, placing all emails from certain coworkers in a special folder.
These limited solutions, however, do not strike at the basic problem behind email—that with so much email being received, it would be most useful for a user to be able to have his or her computer automatically prioritize the email by importance or review urgency, and perform actions based on that prioritization. For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.